Features

Seeking to undercut a ChevronTexaco legal action to block the sale of Point Molate, Richmond city councilmembers Tuesday reconfirmed in public their closed-door extension of exclusive negotiating rights with a would-be casino developer. 

The oil giant won a temporary restraining order that blocks the sale until after the outcome of a Sept. 20 hearing in Contra Costa County Superior Court, based in part on their contention that the city’s earlier closed-door vote to grant the extension violated the Brown Act. 

The move gives more time to Berkeley developer James D. Levine, who has teamed up with a Native American band and Harrah’s, the world’s largest gambling firm, to build a Las Vegas style waterfront gambling resort on the bay. 

With casino proposals in the works for San Pablo, Oakland, Richmond, North Richmond and, possibly, at Golden Gate Fields, word of yet another Richmond casino—this one at Hilltop Mall—was floated by San Francisco Chronicle columnists Matier and Ross.›